Doug's Friend's Disease
by Orange Ratchet
Summary: Doug overhears a name that Roger calls Skeeter, and wants to find out what it is. When he learns about it, will Doug truly know the meaning behind Skeeter's honking sound effects?


DISCLAIMER TIME! I don't own Doug, which used to belong to Nickelodeon and Jumbo Pictures, but now belongs to Disney, Jumbo Pictures and Jim Jinkins!

Here's a new Nicktoon one-shot, and this one is going to star my personal favorite character in the series, Skeeter Valentine! Anyway, enjoy!

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_"Dear Journal, as you may know, Skeeter and I have been best friends for a long time, ever since I moved into Bluffington. We all have our similarities, and sometimes we have our differences, but in the end, we always stick together. Though I am curious as to why Skeeter always did these honking sounds whenever he talked. Yeah, he toned it down a few times, but he sometimes does it whenever we were having a conversation. He doesn't do it when we had pretty serious conversations, but he does it almost all the time, but I never questioned it. We were too big of friends to ask that kind of question."_

Inside the Honker Burger, Doug and Skeeter were busy hanging around having a small snack.

"Man, Doug, who knew that today would be at least five months since you moved to Bluffington?" Skeeter laughed as he did his usual honking sound.

"Yeah, Skeet. I would have never thought we'd make it this far." Doug said, munching on a few fries.

_"Well, me and Skeet were hanging out as per usual when Roger turned up."_

"Hey, Funnie! Valentine!"

Doug and Skeeter just groaned as they turned to see Roger Klotz and his little group of cronies turning up. Doug then said, "What do you want, Roger?"

"Just so you know, it's nearly time for everyone to get back to school tomorrow! And I'm letting you know ahead of time, I'm planning on the biggest prank!" Roger smiled.

Doug and Skeeter had rolled their eyes. They were pretty much used to Roger's little rants by now.

"So, I'm letting you know you're going to be the likely victims. Aw, but that's okay. What can I expect from Mr. Funny and Mr. Tourette's over here!" Roger laughed as Doug looked up in confusion. "See you around, Funnie!"

Roger and his cronies laughed as they walked off.

Skeeter sighed. "Well, at least Roger was kind enough to know what was going on... but the way he laughs..." Skeeter honked again. "What a jerk."

"Yeah..." Doug paused. "Skeeter, who is 'Mr. Tourette's'?"

Skeeter paused as he chuckled nervously. "I don't know. I don't know anybody by that name."

Doug paused.

_"Skeeter seemed to be hiding something, and knowing how we were best friends, we never hide anything from one another. But it seemed from the look of Skeeter's face that it was a little bit personal, so I decided not to bother with it... until I got home. I wanted to look up the word 'Tourette'."_

* * *

It wasn't until Doug got home that he was trying to look around in every dictionary for the word, 'Tourette'. Nearby, Porkchop was a little bit annoyed as a few dictionaries kept bonking him on the head. Porkchop just shook his head as he tried to focus on his tunes... but he couldn't listen to them well when a dictionary kept getting thrown at him every few minutes. By the ninth dictionary, Porkchop just gave up at this point and decided to go to the living room, maybe he can enjoy his music there.

_"I looked up in every dictionary to find the word Tourette, maybe I was searching the wrong places, but either way, I couldn't find any information. That was until my mom came in."_

"Doug, sweetie?" Theda Funnie, Doug's mother said, coming in. "What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to look up a certain word, but I'm not sure what it means." Doug said.

"Oh, what word are you looking up?" Theda asked in curiosity.

"I'm trying to find the word 'Tourette'." Doug said, focusing on the task.

Theda's eyes widened in surprise a bit. "Where did you learn that word?"

"Roger said it to Skeeter. Called him 'Mr. Tourette', or something." Doug said.

"Oh..." Theda said, looking down. "Honey, would you like me to tell you about Tourette's?"

"Sure. I'm probably missing the word by this much anyway." Doug said as he sat next to his mother. "What is 'Tourette's'?"

Theda sighed. "Well, honey... Tourette's is... how do I put this delicately... it's a disease of some sort."

"A disease?" Doug asked.

_"My initial thought was that Skeeter had an illness, similar to a cold, but my mother reassured me it wasn't the case."_

"It's not a disease that you get physically, like a cold or the flu. It's more of a... mental disease, or rather a mental disorder. There are a lot of people who have these types of disorders since they were born... some people with aspberger's syndrome, some people with autism, and sometimes, people with Tourette's syndrome. You know how your friend Skeeter often does those honking sounds?"

"Yeah... why?" Doug asked.

"Well... Skeeter has... well, he has..." Theda said as Doug figured it out.

"Tourette's syndrome?" Doug asked his mother, who nodded. "But what does that have to do with the honking sounds he occasionally makes?"

"Well, honey, Tourette's syndrome is a bit of a mental disorder where you often add in a verbal tic to almost every word. It's like a cartoon character having a special tic to their word, except, this one isn't really funny." Theda explained. "You see, the types of verbal tics that most people would say if they had Tourette's is very naughty language... and Skeeter... is a special case. I think those honks he does is just a repressor, to prevent him from saying naughty words."

"What type of naughty words?" Doug asked, curiously.

"...You'll learn them when you're older, honey." Theda sighed. "The point is, Skeeter has a type of Tourette's syndrome that isn't bad, but sometimes the tics are there. Do you understand what I'm saying, honey?"

Doug paused. "I think I understand completely. And I still want to be Skeeter's friend, no matter if he has Tourette's."

Theda smiled. "Skeeter is lucky to have a friend like you, Doug Funnie."

Doug smiled.

_"For the first time in my life, I never fully realized what my friendship really meant for me and Skeeter. If Skeeter had said naughty language a lot of times, he probably couldn't help himself, and the honking was a way to prevent him from saying the words. If I was in Skeeter's shoes, I'd probably find some way to hide whatever naughty language I would have had as well."_

* * *

The next day, Doug was walking with his backpack to school as he met up with Skeeter.

"Hey, Doug!" Skeeter smiled.

"Hi, Skeeter. Ready to get inside?" Doug asked.

"Yeah. But be wary of Roger. Who knows what he has planned THIS time." Skeeter said as he honked.

Doug shrugged. "Who knows? Who knows?"

_"I decided not to bring up the matter of Skeeter's... special disease. If it was something he was uncomfortable with, I decided to respect him. I know for sure that Skeeter will tell me about his Tourette's when he was ready. And when he is... I'll be there for him, no matter what."_

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And this is another Nicktoon one-shot out of the way! What do you think? Anyway, I'll have another Nicktoon one-shot on the way! Keep your eye out, and read, review, criticize and suggest, folks! Anyway, thank you for reading, have a great day!


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